CEBU CITY, Feb. 5 (PNA) — A senior police intelligence official here has opposed the legalization of marijuana in the Philippines, following similar moves in two American states — Colorado and Washington.
The two states have legalized recreational marijuana, while other states allowed the use of medical marijuana.
Chief Insp. Romeo Santander, intelligence chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said that based on their investigations of heinous crimes, marijuana-usage is one of the contributory factors for suspects to commit such crimes.
Santander said that when he was chief of police of Minglanilla town in 2008, a woman was butchered by a man who was high on marijuana.
Santander said that in some of the major criminal cases in Cebu City, the suspects admitted to law enforcers that they used marijuana and shabu before they committed the crime.
Once the use and selling of marijuana is legalized, it might cause a sudden increase in the crime volume in the country, Santander said.
Santander said marijuana, mostly grown in the mountain barangays of Badian, Balamban, Dalaguete and Danao City in Cebu, is the second most abused drug next to shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) agents, together with soldiers from the Philippine Air Force’s (PAF) 2nd Air Division, uprooted last week some 2,000 stalks of marijuana in Cebu province. (PNA)